Trump continues crusade against Sessions with a fresh line of attack

President Trump continued his public campaign against his own attorney general, Jeff Sessions, on Wednesday, knocking his longtime ally for not replacing acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe.

Trump, who fired James Comey as FBI director in May, also has the authority to replace McCabe. It’s unclear why Trump is singling out Sessions on the issue, other than to add pressure as he reportedly mulls firing him.

“Why didn’t A.G. Sessions replace Acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe, a Comey friend who was in charge of Clinton investigation but got big dollars ($700,000) for his wife’s political run from Hillary Clinton and her representatives. Drain the Swamp!” Trump wrote on Twitter.

Trump was referring to the acting FBI director’s wife, Dr. Jill McCabe, a Democrat who ran for a Virginia State Senate seat in 2015. Her campaign was supported by the political action committee of Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe. The PAC’s support was not from “Hillary Clinton and her representatives,” though McAuliffe is a longtime Clinton ally. And Jill McCabe lost her state Senate race.

The president has waged a weeklong attack on Sessions, who was the first sitting U.S. senator to endorse Trump’s campaign. In an explosive interview with the New York Times last week, Trump indicated he regretted appointing Sessions because the top U.S. law enforcement officer recused himself from any investigation related to the Trump campaign — including the probe into whether the campaign colluded with Russia to influence the election.

“Sessions should have never recused himself, and if he was going to recuse himself, he should have told me before he took the job, and I would have picked somebody else,” Trump told the Times.

Sessions recused himself after it was revealed the Alabama lawmaker had met twice with the Russian ambassador during the 2016 presidential campaign but denied any such meetings at his Senate confirmation hearing.

On Monday, Trump described Sessions as “beleaguered” and publicly encouraged him to investigate Clinton, whom the president defeated more than eight months ago.

He echoed that sentiment Tuesday, when he grumbled about Sessions’ “weak” position on Clinton and intelligence leaks.

The continued undermining of the nation’s top law enforcement official raised the possibility that Sessions would either resign or be fired. So far, Sessions, in his only public statement on his job security so far, declared that he would continue in his role “as long as that is appropriate.”

The president, however, has taken a less definite position. In a Tuesday interview with the Wall Street Journal and at a press conference at the White House, Trump left open the possibility that he would dismiss Sessions.

“I’m very disappointed with the attorney general, but we will see what happens. Time will tell. Time will tell,” Trump said.

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